K12 Classroom Management: Who Will Benefit from Expulsion, Suspension and Retention?
#ccc, #9TH GRADE DROP OUT, #flunk, #drop out, #retention social promotion, #graduation rate, #exit exam, #left behind, #Light's retention scale
DO NOT EXPELL PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
“challenging behaviors”: hitting, shoving, biting, screaming, bolting out an open door, having violent fits.
There are more than 4,000 state-funded preschool centers around the country. The national average expulsion
rate was 6.7 per 1,000 kids enrolled in pre-K programs. The overall prekindergarten expulsion rate was more
than three times higher than in K-12.
Coaches reduced expulsions in three counties that were part of a pilot program launched in 2007 with
$500,000
from the Legislature. While 40 percent of child-care directors said that they had expelled a child in the
year
before they got help from coaches, only 20 percent had done so since.
Walter S Gilliam, PhD Associate Professor in the Child Study Center
and of Psychology; Director, Yale-China Program on Child Development; Associate Professor of Psychology;
Director, The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy
We expel preschool kids three times as often as K-12 students. It is a national problem.
Preschoolers get expelled at three times the rate of students in elementary, middle and
high
schools. Preschool boys were expelled more than girls, African Americans were expelled more than any other
race, and African-American boys had the greatest chance of being booted from their preschool classrooms.But
when teachers get regular help from mental-health coaches, they expel at half the rate of those who don't.
Here's how to change that.
A
remedy is already in place in Connecticut when Gilliam did his study. When preschool teachers have access to
a
good coach — a mental-health professional who can, in real time, help them work with the kids who are giving
them fits — expulsions go way down.
Gilliam found that preschool teachers who had a regular, ongoing relationship with such a coach expelled
kids
at half the rate of the teachers who had no help at all. The state of Connecticut still offers coaches for
free to all of its licensed preschools and child-care providers.
embracing ideals
and
making them real
Highline struggles with fallout after limiting student suspensions
Highline sat at the leading edge of a national effort to rethink school discipline and move away from
outright punishment. Since then, many teachers have resigned, pointing toward a vast gulf between embracing
ideals and making them real.
Highline has focused on in-school suspension. Rather than tossing kids for defiant behavior, teachers were
expected to manage their outbursts in class, and refer chronic misbehavers to a kind of super study hall
where
an academic coach would get them back on track and connect those who needed it to counseling.
trouble cropped up immediately. Teachers had received little or no Training on de-escalation techniques to
use
in their classrooms. Each school interpreted the new discipline rules differently. And in a district of
20,000
mostly poor kids, a single truancy officer was employed to ensure they attended class. “I've never seen a
kid
come back from in-school suspension caught up,” said Kristina Smethers, an art teacher at Mount Rainier
High.
“In fact, they seemed to get worse, as if they really didn't consider it much of a consequence.”
U.S. STATES: DROP OUTS - PUSHED OUT
Four-year drop-out rate, the percentage of ninth-graders (about 31% nationally) who do not receive diplomas four years later.
2010 Study Finds Early Retention Benefits Can Be Fleeting. Some studies show, in fact, that students who repeat a grade in school are more likely than their nonretained counterparts to drop out later on.
2012 Houston TX Thousands of Houston-area high school students failed the state's new standardized exams and must retake them - or risk not graduating. Preliminary test results released by several local districts Thursday reveal that ninth-graders struggled the most on the writing exam, indicating they are not prepared for college-level work. In the Houston Independent School District, about 7,500 freshmen failed at least one of the end-of-course exams they took last spring. On the writing test, only 47 percent of HISD's freshmen passed, early data show. Students can retake the exams as soon as July or later in high school.
social promotion
President Bill Clinton called for a ban on the practice in the 1990s, the decision to end it remains at the state and local levels. More than half the states allow the practice, according to the U.S. Department of Education in 2011. Generally, “flunked students perform worse and drop out of school at higher rates,” according to an analysis by K12 Academics, a national education resource website. For those held back two or more grades, the dropout rate is nearly 100 percent. In contrast, according to the U.S. Department of Education, “Research indicates, and common sense confirms, that passing students on to the next grade when they are unprepared neither increases student achievement nor properly prepares students for college and future employment. No national data is kept regarding social promotion. spokesman.com/stories/2011/oct/16/a-pupils-right-of-passage/?prefetch=1
2012 Lawmakers in Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, and Tennessee want to hold back students who
aren't at grade level by the end of third grade, but this short-term solution could do long-term harm to
children's social and educational development, writes Emily Richmond in The Atlantic magazine. Research shows third grade to be a critical year. Students not
at
grade level by then are found to have a mere 20 percent chance of ever catching up, and are four times more
likely to drop out of school. Yet retention is proving a poor remedy. Florida implemented a third-grade
retention initiative in 2002 and saw fourth-grade reading scores rise but eighth-grade scores later
flat-line.
"Everybody supports the idea that if a student isn't reading well in third grade, it's a signal
the child needs help," says David Berliner of Arizona State University. "If you hold them back,
you
spend roughly another $10,000 per child for an extra year of schooling. If you spread out that $10,000 over
the fourth and fifth grades for extra tutoring, in the long run you get a better outcome." Accordingly,
the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is focusing on three key factors -- readiness, attendance, and summer
learning. Its goal is that students arrive at school with the fundamental reading readiness skills from the
outset, younger students develop "a culture and habit" of regular attendance, and investments be
made in early childhood education and literacy programs.
2010 Each Year About 1.3 million students drop out
2010 About 1.3 million students drop out of high school each year, costing the nation more than $335 billion in lost wages, revenues and productivity over their lifetimes. Of the $50 billion the federal government spends on incarceration, $45 billion is spent on individuals who did not get a high school diploma. ~ Youth ChalleNGe officials.
WHERE DO WE LOOK
TO SEE WHAT EDUCATION CAN BECOME?
The Question that you ask
will determine much of the answer that you get.
The School System as we know it, is an inheritance of the 19th century from the Bismarckian model of german schooling that got taken up by the English reformers and the religious missionary, and worked it's way into the U.S. as a force of social cohesion, but is a Federal Department of Education model that now works against us.
The Take Away
Pull don't Push
Attract people through the Arts to bring people to learning.
2015 The Schoolification of the World.
Charles Leadbeater: Education innovation in the slums
In America 1993 National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program
(mostly for boys but girls also
do
go there) the nation's second-largest mentoring program in the last year include a jump in the
percentage
of federal dollars contributed to each state from 60 percent to 75 percent; an Office of Management and
Budget-directed $20 million boost in Defense Department money for the program for the 2011 fiscal year; and
increasing private support despite a challenging economy. Almost 100,000 have graduated.
- National Guard
Youth
Challenge Program, a 17-month voluntary intervention program that has graduated more than 92,850
former high dropouts since 1993. Article
Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau; Indy 500 champion Dan Wheldon and NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. Feb. 23, 2010 - MDRC, a highly regarded nonprofit research organization, indicates that ChalleNGe works well, at least in the initial stages. Nine months after 2,320 recent dropouts enrolled in the program, they were much more likely to have earned a high school diploma or GED than the 754 dropouts in a control group who applied for the program but were not selected in a random lottery because there was not enough space for everyone.
- Eligibility Criteria The applicant must be a citizen or legal resident of the United States and New Jersey. Be between 16 - 18-1/2 years of age. Free from legal involvements; including probation, parole or any pending court matters.Drug and alcohol free. Must be officially withdrawn from High School.
Civilian Conservation Corps
Problems IN AMERICA: THEY GOT RID OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND STARTED THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION
CORPS
1933 - 1942
Civilian Conservation Corps see the National Archives of Records of the Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC] In
June 1933, the ECW decided that men in CCC camps could be given the opportunity of vocational training and
additional education. Educational programs were developed that varied considerably from camp to camp, both
in
efficiency and results. More than 90 percent of all enrollees participated in some facet of the educational
program.
CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM iN aMERICAN sCHOOLS
2012 Absenteeism Study
America's education system is based on the assumption that barring illness or an extraordinary event,
students
are in class every weekday. So strong is this assumption that it is not even measured. Because it is not
measured, chronic absenteeism is not acted upon. The six states reported chronic absentee rates from 6
percent
to 23 percent, with high poverty urban areas reporting up to one-third of students chronically absent. A
national rate of 10 percent chronic absenteeism seems conservative and it could be as high as 15 percent,
meaning that 5 million to 7.5 million students are chronically absent. Indeed, it is the rare state
education
department, school district or principal that can tell you how many students have missed 10 percent or more
of
the school year or in the previous year missed a month or more school − two common definitions of chronic
absence. Chronic absenteeism is not the same as truancy or average daily attendance - the attendance rate
schools use for state report cards and federal accountability. Chronic absenteeism means missing 10 percent
of
a school year for any reason. A school can have average daily attendance of 90 percent and still have 40
percent of its students chronically absent, because on different days, different students make up that 90
percent. [SUMMARY] - Full
report pdf. + ppt
presentation tool
Literacy Statistics Can't read - Go to Jail.
FACT: The Privately owned Prison System is making a lot of money stuffing jails with people who
can't read, can't get a high school diploma, can't graduate from college and who can't get
a
job even if there was one!
“High schools are coming under pressure from the federal government to improve the nation's dismal dropout rate — one in four students.
- Every year, Diplomas Count takes a careful look at nationwide trends related to high school
graduation. This year, they have titled their report Graduation by the numbers Putting Data to Work for Student Success. 2010
Find the data for your state. - 2010 On average about 30 percent of high school students fail to graduate in four years. In low income neighbors that number swells to 50 percent. High-School Graduation Rates Dip Slightly for Second Straight Year. Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, shows that high-school graduation rates dipped slightly for the Class of 2007. Only 68.8 percent of students who started as ninth graders in the 2003-4 academic year had graduated four years later, according to the report, "Diplomas Count 2010: Graduation by the Numbers -- Putting Data to Work for Student Success." That's down slightly from 69.2 percent for the previous high-school class and marks the second year of decline in the national graduation rate.
2010 Federal Education Jobs Fund Estimating the Impact of the EduJobs Proposal on States. An earlier version of this proposal would have allowed states to use this funding to create or retain both K-12 and higher education teaching positions. This most recent proposal would only allow states to expend these funds on K-12 positions and would not allow for any of the funding to go to higher education institutions.
- 2001 in the US High School Graduation Rates
- 2008 New rules address 'outrageous' dropout rates There is something wrong when one quarter of the children do not finish high school. The burden that this places on the economy is enormous.
- 2008 Nationwide, about one in three high school students drops out before graduating. Nearly 1.2 million students drop out each school year -- about 7,000 every school day, or one every 26 seconds.
- 1/4/2010 Six States to Develop Policies to Fight High School Dropout, Achieve Graduation for All
Follow Contracts and Federal Spending Major Contracting Agency is the Dept. of
Education for more statistical information about American elementary, secondary and post secondary
schools, students, and the educational process.
2/7/2010 How 9th-Grade Gridlock Keeps Boys Out of College
http://chronicle.com/article/How-9th-Grade-Gridlock-Keeps/63995/
Ninth-Grade Repeaters. Ninth grade is the "bulge" year, in which nationally there were 113 boys
for
every 100 girls in 2007, according to the Southern Regional Education Board, which tracks such statistics.
Incoming ninth-grade boys unprepared for the college-track rigors of high school get slammed and held back
for
a repeat "experience."
Nationally in 2006-7, approximately 250,000 male students (12 percent of all ninth-grade boys) and 178,000
female students (9 percent of the girls) repeated ninth grade.
Boys are getting clobbered by school reforms that push higher-level academic skills, especially advanced
literacy skills, into the lowest grades. They fall behind quickly, get passed through middle school, and
then
hit a wall in ninth grade as they enter high-stakes territory. Even if the boys recover, their senior-year
GPA's will never match those of the girls.
Special counselors should prowl high schools recruiting nontraditional college students. Their promise: Work
with us, and we'll guarantee you a smooth path through community college and a guaranteed acceptance at
a
four-year college (in this case George Mason University) as long as you graduate with decent grades. Just
for
the record, it's working.
2010 STILL SLIDING
The percentage of students earning a standard diploma in four years has slid from 69.2 percent in 2006 to
68.8
percent in 2007, according to an analysis in Education Week's "Diplomas Count 2010," The
Christian Science Monitor reports. This is the second consecutive year of decline, translating to 11,000
fewer
graduates in 2007 than in 2006; at its peak in 1969, the national graduation rate was 77 percent. On a more
positive note, the report identifies 21 cities that posted higher graduation rates than expected based on a
range of predictors, including demographics and poverty. Five districts outpaced expectations by 18
percentage
points or more: Newport-Mesa Unified in California; David Douglas in Portland, Oregon; Texarkana Independent
in Texas; Memphis City in Tennessee; and Visalia Unified in California. Diplomas Count computes the
percentage
of public-school students graduating with a standard diploma in four years using a method known as the
Cumulative Promotion Index, which enables comparisons across all districts. The report did note that racial
and ethnic gaps persist, with 46 percent of African American students, 44 percent of Latinos, and 49 percent
of Native Americans failing to earn a diploma in four years. About one-fifth of the non-graduates come from
25
large school districts that include New York City, Los Angeles, and Clark County, Nevada.
K-12 Teaching Standards and Cheating
Administrators and Sources of Corruption.
Texas Cheaters - Like Enron
7/1/09 Texas Projection Measure Thoughts by George Scott "Basically, the TPM is a calculation that permits the State to assert that a student who actually
failed
the test in a given year is on “pace” to pass the test in a future year based upon the student's
“progress” from prior year's testing. It's an offshoot of the disastrously dishonest and
reprehensible
academic fraud called the Texas Learning Index used during the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS)
era.
Under that statistical (TPM) calculation, a student who actually failed a test will not be counted against a
campus's failure rate for rating purposes if the TPM shows passage at a grade in the future (more or
less
simplified.) Even if the TEA can prove that something is “statistically” true; it is still lying to you. It
is
still giving you information that appears to be honest and well motivated, but it is actually designed to
give
aid and comfort to its sick system of testing and supposed accountability.
DROP OUTS or PUSHED OUT
Learn about the financial incentive to avoid the costs associated with the exit exam test which is what promotes
pushing children out of school and what is at the bottom of why they really drop out.
It is better for the tax payer to spend the money to teach people to pass the test.
IF you don't spend the tax money to educate the child so they can pass the exit exam then they won't graduate. IF they don't graduate then you spend the tax money to help them live.
How
many students really graduate from High School in the U.S. 2006
The new report compares graduation rates reported by the states and the U.S. Department of Education to
those
reported by independent researchers. While the average difference between state and independent sources is
about 13 percent, the gap ranges from a low of 4 percent to a high of 32 percent. Additionally, the report
considers the costs of the dropout crisis and identifies three core areas that are fundamental to
calculating,
reporting, and improving accurate graduation rates:
(1) The need for all states to use the same accurate graduation rate calculations;
(2) The need for a state data system that tracks individual student data from the time students enter the
educational system until they leave it; and
(3) The need for federal policy that meaningfully holds high schools accountable for improving student
achievement on test scores and increasing graduation rates so that low-performing students are not
unnecessarily held back or encouraged to leave school without a diploma.
Alliance for Excellent Education, illustrates the discrepancies in graduation rates reported by government
and
independent sources. Misleading graduation rate calculations, inadequate systems to track students
throughout
their education, and lack of accountability by the school are undermining efforts to understand and increase
the nations graduation rate.
5/05 PAYING THE PRICE FOR THE DROPOUT EPIDEMIC
Two facts are closely linked: Indiana was 44th in the nation in job creation last year, and it's 46th in
the educational attainment level of its population. The first number won't rise until the second is
confronted. Most dropouts are condemned to chronic unemployment or underemployment. Only 35 percent of black
dropouts between ages 16 and 24 are currently employed. Sixty percent of all dropouts were unemployed last
year. Indianapolis and Indiana are paying a heavy price for failing to deal realistically with the dropout
epidemic. At a time when an educated work force is essential to economic development, almost three of 10
students in Indiana are not graduating from high school. Prison also snares many, especially the men. About
37
percent of black male dropouts have done a stint in prison, according to Princeton University researcher
Bruce
Western. Sixty-eight percent of state prison inmates -- including 27 percent of whites -- were dropouts,
according to a 1997 survey by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Legally all children up to the age of 21 years old in New York, are allowed by law to stay in High School. Texas Education Code, section 25.001 students who are at least five years old and under 21 years old on September 1 of that school year are eligible to attend school on a tuition-free basis. Also, attending school is compulsory for students who are at least six years old and under 18 years old (TEC 25.085). Is your state pushing kids out?
RETENTION
Find the compulsory age children must start school and at what age they may leave the system at the Education Commission of the States however each state may have it's own law governing the legal age limit (ex: 21 years old) each child has the right to stay in High School and may NOT pushed out. "Elisa Hyman, a lawyer with Advocates for Children helps students who have been pushed out gain reinstatement. The Department of Education classifies each student who leaves school under one of dozens of codes, it does not release - or apparently even compile - information on how many students leave under which circumstances and what becomes of them." 2003 Source
RETENTION: HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN IT WILL DO ANY GOOD TO RETAIN THE STUDENT?
High-School Exit Exams Linked to Higher Dropout Rates, http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i45/45a01401.htm
Since 1979, a growing number of states have required high-school students to pass exit
examinations before they can receive diplomas. two teams of scholars have written papers that support the
more-harm-than-good thesis. In a recent working paper, Thomas S. Dee, an associate professor of economics at
Swarthmore College, and Brian A. Jacob, an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard
University, reported that students in states with relatively easy exit exams are roughly 4 percent more
likely
to drop out of high school than similar students in states with no exams. In states with relatively
difficult
exit exams, students are 5.5 percent more likely to drop out than their counterparts in states with no
exams.
TEST - State High School Exit Exams
2006 State High School Exit Exams: A Challenging Year describes the remediation services
and other support that states provide to help students pass the exams.
High School Graduation Rates debate between Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic
Policy Institute, and Jay P. Greene
U.S. STATES: Drop Outs - Pushed Out - Standards No Child Left Behind
Find the compulsory age children must start school and at what age they may leave the system at the
Education Commission of the States however each state may have it's own law governing the legal age
limit (ex: 21 years old) each child has the right to stay in High School and may NOT pushed out.
THE DIMENSIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF PHILADELPHIAS DROPOUT CRISIS 2000
Only about half of the ninth graders in Philadelphia's public schools graduate in four years, and
30,000
young people dropped out of that city's high schools between 2000 and 2005, creating a "dropout
crisis" with far-reaching economic and social consequences. But dropping out is predictable and
preventable, especially in large city public schools that produce many of the nations dropouts, says Johns
Hopkins University researchers Ruth Curran Neild and Robert Balfanz. In "Unfulfilled Promise:
The Dimensions and Characteristics of Philadelphia's Dropout Crisis, 2000-05," PDF they draw on extensive
data
from Philadelphia schools and social service agencies not only to establish the problem but also to
provide
insight on how cities across the country can solve their dropout problem.
"This report can help big city school districts gain a deeper understanding of the dimensions and
characteristics of the dropout crisis. It provides a road map on how to find and establish the best
prevention and intervention strategies to keep all students on the graduation track." said Balfanz, a
research scientist and co-director of Talent Development High Schools at Hopkins.
TRUSTED STATE EVALUATORS ARE CHEATERS. THE TAXPAYER ISN'T TOLD THE TRUTH.
TEXAS
While Texas has one of the most sophisticated systems for tracking its public school students, the dropout
and graduation rates that it culls from that data are among the most misleading in the nation, reports
Jennifer Radcliffe. The state's official graduation rate hovers around 85 percent, but researchers at
some of the country's top universities put Texas' graduation rate below 70 percent. In urban
districts, including Dallas and Houston, less than half of some minority groups earn diplomas in four
years
-- a significantly smaller number than what the districts self-report, they say. "They have the gold
standard (for data collection). Unfortunately ... the gold has turned into fool's gold," said
Daniel Losen, a senior education law and policy associate with the Civil Rights Project at Harvard
University. "Texas has dramatically inflated its graduation rates ... for
years." State education leaders say the research is based on old data and highlights
problems
that have already been addressed. National studies show that Texas' statistics omit about 78,000 teens
who might otherwise be counted as dropouts. "It's a sham of accountability," Losen said.
VOYAGER EXPANDED LEARNING READING PROGRAM AND
READING
FIRST CHEATERS BUSTED
2006 State High School Exit Exams: A Challenging Year
On August 16, 2006, the Center on Education Policy released its fifth annual report on state high school
exit exams. The report, State High School Exit Exams: A Challenging Year, analyzes the
difficulties
that states faced in 2005-06 as they implemented these exams and describes the remediation services and
other support that states provide to help students pass the exams.
More College Students Drop Out Than Graduate
BOSTON (Reuters) 8/15/01 - Fewer than half of U.S. college students make it to graduation, which means
that
Americans have a better chance of getting an accurate weather report than they have of getting a
university
degree.
Less than 50 percent of students entering four-year colleges or universities actually graduate, Council
for
Aid to Education (CAE) researchers said in a report. ''And that's a conservative
estimate,'' said Richard Hersh who co-authored the report on the quality of higher education for
the
National Governors Association.
As for the weather reports, a spokesman for the U.S. National Weather Service said: ``If you want to know
if
it's going to rain tomorrow, then we're accurate 88 percent of the time.''
Backing up the CAE report, figures from ACT, formerly the American College Testing Service, show the
graduation rate at four-year public institutions fell to 41.9 percent in 2000, while the rate at private
schools was 55.1 percent.
Peer Committee Report for Improving High School Graduation Rates 2003
Education Policy Analysis Archives http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n23/
Volume 8 Number 23 May 12, 2000 ISSN 1068-2341
School-based Standard Testing by Craig Bolon
Planwright Systems Corporation
Brookline, MA (USA)
Official Texas statistics claim reductions in school dropouts, but independent studies consistent with U. S. government data show persistent increases, with 42 percent of all students failing to receive a high school diploma as of 1998 ("Longitudinal Attrition Rates," 1999). Students identified by Texas as black or Hispanic are disproportionately affected. In some schools 100 percent of students with limited English proficiency drop out (IDRA, 1998). Illiteracy remains a major problem in Texas, and it appears to be worsening.
The NAEP High School
Transcript
Study
Everything you always wanted to know about high school transcripts…from the U.S. Department of Education.
(HSTS) provides information on course offerings and course-taking patterns in the nation's secondary
schools, and the relationship of student course-taking patterns to achievement at grade 12 as measured by
the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Dropout scandal revisited - Grand jury will hear case over HISD's data reporting
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/education/3384226
How to save money, just drop the students out.. You don't have to spend money.
A
Harris
County grand jury is scheduled to hear evidence Friday in the 3-year-old Houston Independent School
District
dropout-reporting scandal, a prosecutor confirmed Wednesday. Assistant District Attorney Terese Buess, of
the office's Public Integrity Division, would not say what sort of criminal charges might be under
consideration or who might be a focus of the probe.
8/30/03 Houston Chronicle Report rips Sharpstown for dropout fiasco http://www.edailynews.net/articles/ednetviewer.asp?a=7882&z=6
A legal firm looking into the dropout fiasco at Sharpstown High School found that a "complete
breakdown
in the chain of command" allowed the school's top management to report to the state dropout data
they should have known was false.
"More than 50 % of students fail high-stakes graduation test" By Jessica
Brice
http://www.signonsandiego.com/News/education/20020930-1012-ca-highschoolexam.html
ASSOCIATED PRESS September 30, 2002
Summary: More than 1/2 flunked math and english sections in 2002
Black and Hispanic students had the highest rate of failure this year, with only 28 percent of black
students and 30 percent of Hispanic students passing. On the other hand, 70 percent of Asian students and
65
percent of white students passed the test.
Test was created in 1999 as one of Gov. Gray Davis' first education-improvement proposals. Starting in
2004, california 10th-grader students must pass the California High School Exit Examination to graduate.
Students who don't pass will have seven chances to retake the test or they won't receive a high
school diploma.
School results http://signonsandiego.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/static/cahsee.html/CA
Critics say
the test, given to , unfairly hurts low-income and minority students because they don't have access to
the same educational resources as more affluent students At least half the states in the nation have a
high
school exit exam.
Report Disputes U.S. High School Graduation Rates By Linda Perlstein
Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 26, 2004; Page A03
Barely
half
of all black, Hispanic and Native American students who entered U.S. high schools in 2000 will receive
diplomas this year, according to a new report that challenges conventional methods of calculating
graduation
rates.
Of all students who entered ninth grade four years ago, only 68 % are expected to graduate with regular
diplomas this year. The rates for minorities are considerably lower -- 50 % for blacks, 51 % for Native
Americans and 53 % for Hispanics -- according to a measure devised by the Urban Institute, a
Washington-based nonprofit organization.
Methods of calculating graduation rates are a perpetual subject of debate , and there are many differences
in the ways states and school systems report data. By any measure, though, blacks and Hispanics graduate
at
lower rates than whites, a situation that has long concerned educators.
"We will never dissolve the hegemony of Jim Crow segregation
.
. . unless we get serious about this problem," said Christopher Edley, co-director
of
the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, which joined the Urban Institute to write "Losing Our
Future: How Minority Youth Are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis."
Some states determine the graduation rate by comparing the number of 12th graders at the beginning of the
year to the number of graduates. The prevailing measure, devised by the National Center for Education
Statistics, considers the number of students who graduate and the number thought to have dropped
out.
Christopher Swanson, the Urban Institute research associate who devised the new method, said that many
dropouts go uncounted and that his "cumulative promotion index," which
considers
the number of students enrolled each year and the number who receive diplomas after four years, is more
authentic.
Maryland recently reported a graduation rate of 85 %; the cumulative promotion index,
however, puts the state's rate at 75 %. Virginia's declared rate, also 85 %, compares to a
promotion
index of 74 %. By both measures, whites were significantly more likely than minorities to
graduate.
The District reported a 64 % graduation rate; the promotion index was 65 %. A racial gap
was not calculated because of the small numbers of whites.
According to the report, the national graduation rate is 72 % for girls and 64 % for
boys.
The authors criticized the federal No Child Left Behind law for requiring that test score data but
not graduation rates be broken down by race. They suggested that the law's requirement that
schools meet escalating proficiency goals, as well as the proliferation of state high school exit exams,
might encourage school officials to nudge out lower-performing students. Kati Hay cock, director of the
Education Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, agreed that graduation rates are worse than is
generally reported, but she opposed the notion that federal testing requirements cause students to leave.
"How can you possibly suggest that just making educators accountable for student learning makes TEACHERS CHEAT and push students out of
school?" she said.
The Impact of High Stakes Graduation Tests on High School
Dropout
RESEARCH AND IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY
Overall, neither social promotion nor retention leads to high performance. If the goal is
to bring low-performing students up to the higher standards now being asserted across the nation, neither
retention nor social promotion is effective. In different studies, one or the other has
been found to offer an advantage, but neither has been found to offer a large, lasting advantage, and
neither leads to high performance. When kids are locked up, what happens to their education? A profile of
juvenile crime.The responsibility for educating incarcerated juveniles rests, for the
most
part, with the local school district.
Types of crimes
- 35 percent are classified as person crimes, such as aggravated assault, simple assault, and criminal homicide.
- 29 % are property crimes, such as burglary, auto theft, and arson.
- 13 % are technical violations, such as violating parole and probation.
- 10 % are public order violations, such as carrying weapons.
- 9 % are drug offenses.
- 4 % are status offenses.*
Crimes by age, gender, and race
- 65 % of juvenile offenders under age 18 are 15 to 17 years old.
- 87 % of juvenile offenders are boys; the peak age for boys in placement is 16 or 17.
- 13 % of juvenile offenders are girls; the peak age for girls in placement is 15 or 16.
- 63 % of all juvenile offenders are minorities (40 % black, 19 % Hispanic, 2 % American Indian, and 2 % Asian); 37 % are white.
Types of facilities
- 85 % of detained** and 68 % of committed** juveniles are held in public facilities; juveniles who commit less serious offenses are more often held in private facilities.
- 70 % are held in locked facilities; most juveniles in public facilities and tribal facilities are confined to locked placements.
- Boys more often than girls, and minority juveniles more often than white youth, are held in locked facilities.
- 7,600 juveniles younger than 18 are in adult jails nationwide.
* Status offenses are behaviors that are not law violations for adults, such as running away, truancy, or
incorrigibility. ** Detained juveniles include those awaiting adjudication in a juvenile court; those
whose
disposition is pending before or after their case is heard; and those awaiting a hearing or trial in an
adult criminal court. Committed juveniles are those placed in a facility or jail as the result of a
juvenile
or criminal court order.
Source: Sickmund, Melissa. “Juveniles in Corrections.” U.S. Department of Justice: Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, June 2004.
Resources and Advice For New Teachers
Standards
Too Many Current Teachers Are
Underqualified>
Fewer than 75% of all teachers have studied child development,
learning, and teaching methods, have degrees in their subject area, and have passed state licensing
requirements Nearly one-fourth (23%) of all secondary teachers do not have even a college minor in their
main teaching field. This is true for more than 30% of mathematics teachers.
Those Who Can't Teach New Teachers Flunk in Massachusetts 7/7/98
An opinion by John Silber, Chancellor of Boston University and chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education, helped to design the test given to prospective teachers in Mass.BOSTON -- This spring, Massachusetts administered its first statewide test for candidates hoping to teach in the public schools. The recent announcement of the results has provoked astonishment and outrage. Almost 60 percent of the candidates failed. Thirty percent failed a basic test in reading and writing, and the failure rate on subject-matter tests varied from 63 percent in mathematics to 18 percent in physical education.
When the results were published, the reactions were predictable: approval from those appalled by the decline in the quality of public schools and howls of complaint from education professionals, including college professors, deans and college presidents.
TEACHERS ARE IDIOTS by Jerry Taylor
Develop Technology Skills of Professors
To see what some reviewers of research about retention have concluded, take a look at these sources.
-- Karweit, M. L. (1999). Grade retention: Prevalence, timing, and effects. (Report No. 33). Baltimore, MD: Center For Research On The Education Of Students Placed At Risk, Johns Hopkins University.
-- Pomplun, M. (1988). Retention: The earlier, the better? Journal of Educational Research, 81,
281286.
Books
Children's Scholarship Fund with Merrill Lynch do a Education Conference on How Entrepreneurs Can
Improve
Education. and the merits of moving to a more market-driven system.
The astonishing and largely unknown history of diversity and markets in American education. Diane Ravitch
will
focus her remarks on the history of New York City, primarily 20th century. Andrew Coulson will discuss early
American education history, highlighting the diversity of educational options in the 18th and early 19th
centuries, and covering the foundation of the Common Schools. Joseph P. Viteritti will focus on a brief
history of 20th century reform efforts in elementary and secondary education, beginning with Brown vs. Board
of Education decision and Milton Friedman's voucher plan, and continuing to the present day.
Juvenile Justice http://www.fape.org/justice/juv_justice.htm
The content of this website below also serves as a reminder that the cost of dropouts is not just to the
individual but to society as well.
The American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center's "Parents Manual"
- Resources on Transition of Incarcerated Youth
- Youth with Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice System
- National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center
- Youth Crime/Adult Time: Is Justice Served?
- Parenting Resources for the 21st Century online guide is an initiative of the Coordinating Council on
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (the Council)
- Education as Crime Prevention: Providing Education to Prisoners
- An occasional research paper from The Center on Crime, Communities, and Culture
- Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report: Minorities in the Juvenile Justice System
- National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice (EDJJ) Legislative Note: Both the US House
and Senate amended their versions of the Juvenile Justice Act to allow schools to suspend or expel a child
with a disability in the same manner as a child without disability in cases involving weapons. If schools do
not provide educational services during this particular type of disciplinary action for non-disabled
children,
then they do not have to provide educational services to children with disabilities. There are slight
differences between the two amendments, and an agreement will be worked out in conference committee. 2003